What Are the President's Motives for Vetoing Amendments to the State Property Act?

President Rumen Radev has returned certain provisions of the Law on Amendments and Additions to the Law on State Property to the National Assembly for reconsideration. According to a statement from the presidential press centre, the Head of State believes that the last-minute changes adopted on 31 July 2025 remove established legal safeguards concerning the execution of specific disposal transactions involving property entrusted to the state.

“The sale of assets from enterprises listed in the so-called prohibition list under the Law on Privatisation and Post-Privatisation Control (LPPC) is being facilitated. The requirement that privatisation sales of distinct parts of commercial companies with more than 50 percent state participation in the capital, included in the list under Article 3, paragraph 1 (the so-called prohibition list), can only take place after a decision by the National Assembly upon a proposal from the Council of Ministers has been removed. In this regard, President Radev’s reasoning states that these changes to the LPPC create conditions for concealing the political responsibility of the ruling majority. More worryingly, however, they legalise the relinquishment of constitutional powers entrusted to the executive branch regarding the management and disposal of property under state responsibility. In the long term, this could negatively affect the assets of the companies themselves and render the prohibition list, in which they nominally remain, meaningless.”

Tensions in the Triangle of Power: Dispute Between the President and the Cabinet Over the Management of State-Owned Properties